Gen Z is going crazy for this accessory beloved by your grandma: ‘Perfect’
It’s time to raid your grandma’s jewelry box — brooches are back.
The once-dated pin is now a hot button accessory dominating street style, red carpets and runways.
“We’re definitely seeing more and more people gravitate toward it, especially the younger demographic — it’s shifting and they’re becoming more and more interested,” Noelle Sciacca, The RealReal’s senior lead of women’s fashion and strategic partnerships, told Women’s Wear Daily.
The second-hand retail site has seen a considerable increase in brooch sales for the past two years, she said, noting that wearers are expanding beyond the traditional holiday accessory to everyday wear, like “styling a scarf as a top and she’s clipping the brooch on the scarf to close it” or pinning it to a suit lapel.
It’s a stark contrast from the last few years of subdued minimalism and “quiet luxury,” an era which data from The RealReal proves might be coming to an end.
“We had that quiet luxury boom where everything was minimalist, like head-to-toe even with jewelry, and our data and our sales demand are showing that there’s a shift out of that,” Sciacca noted.
“Or people are taking those pieces that are more minimal and styling and layering the more bold pieces, so brooches are the perfect way to go about that.”
On the fall/winter 2024 runways, brooches proliferated. Gen Z-beloved brands such as Tory Burch, Miu Miu and Schiaparelli pinned glittering brooches to lapels, coats and sheer blouses.
Meanwhile, creators on TikTok boast their favorite brooches and how to style them — primarily as makeshift buttons — with thousands of videos on the platform using the tag #brooches.
And, at a variety of 2024 awards shows and red carpet appearances, Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Matthew McConaughey, Barry Keoghan and John Krasinski all donned sparkling brooches, the popularity of which has been born out of “an increasing desire to personalize and punctuate,” Bertrand Mak, the founder of Sauvereign, which designed the brooch worn by Cillian Murphy, told Grazia.
Sotheby’s Frank Everett, the vice chairman of jewels in the Americas, told WWD that he “could not have seen more of them during the red carpet season,” hoping that this “crossover” into men’s fashion might solidify brooches as a permanent fixture in accessorizing.
“As a jewelry designer, I think it’s the truest form of their art because it’s a sculpture that you just pin somewhere,” Everett said of brooches.
“It doesn’t have to fit a finger or hang from an ear. It doesn’t have to be 16 inches to fit the neck — it’s free form. They really get to just create something beautiful out of precious material. That’s one of the most attractive things about brooches.”
Michael Saiger, the founder and creative director of Miansai, told WWD that he’s received an increase in custom brooch requests in the last 12 months.
He believes the popularity of the pin is “driven by this reimagined vintage kind of fashion,” which has become quite the commodity with Gen Z thrifters and secondhand shoppers who gravitate towards pre-loved designer.
“Hardly anyone makes them anymore,” Everett explained.
“If you’re really into brooches and you want to collect interesting things, if you go now to any of the big houses and ask for a current assortment brooch, they won’t have many options. If you want to really get interesting things, you have to look at the secondary market. You have to look at auctions.”
According to Everett, Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels are among the most coveted at auction, andm on The RealReal, Van Cleef & Arpels is a star seller, boasting a significant increase in interest of 223% year-over-year on the resale site.
“It’s the new update to the classic pin,” Saiger said.
